A seemingly innocent post by Sesame Street icon Big Bird encouraging children to get the COVID-19 vaccine sparked controversy among some conservative figures on Twitter, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, KTLA sister station WFLA reports.
The Sesame Street icon and fictional character posted on Twitter Saturday that he got his coronavirus vaccine.
It was part of a collaboration between Sesame Street and CNN, which had a town hall for families with the show’s characters, CNN journalist Erica Hill and Dr. Sanjay Gupta on COVID-19 vaccines Saturday morning.
The program coincided with the first COVID-19 vaccines being given for children between the ages of 5 and 11 this weekend.
For many people, the tweet was well received. One Twitter user even pointed out Big Bird’s history of educating children on immunization in the earlier days of the show.
However, others, including Cruz, didn’t view the Sesame Street cast’s involvement in promoting COVID-19 vaccine quite as kindly. Cruz called Big Bird’s tweet “government propaganda…for your 5-year-old.”
Florida political strategist Ana Navarro-Cárdenas said Republican politicians complaining about Big Bird were acting like 5-year-old’s.
“While these bloviating outrage machines attack Sesame Street, Biden got a deal passed to build actual streets,” she said. “Also, apologies to 5 year olds.”